1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a radio communication system which realizes intercommunications between radio terminals.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in a normal communication system adopting a simplex method which is known as the method of making radio connections without using a specific channel for transmitting control signals, a calling party detects an idle channel and transmits connection request information for a prescribed period of time. A radio terminal which is in a standby state scans all the channels to receive the connection request information.
However, in the simplex method, there is a high probability for the radio terminal to scan all the channels before it receives a calling signal, and a considerably long time is required until connection is achieved.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a radio communication system which can shorten the connection processing time required for connecting radio terminals to each other.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a radio communication system which allows an interworking among a plurality of radio communication networks with a simple operation.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a radio communication system which allows an interworking among a plurality of radio communication networks with a simple structure.
In order to achieve the above objects, according to a preferred aspect of the present invention, there is disclosed a radio communication system, which comprises a radio base station which accommodates a plurality of radio communication terminals in a radio communication area, and a plurality of radio communication terminals each of which performs a communication using a control channel and a communication channel when the communication is performed via said radio base station, comprising: communication means for performing a communication with another radio communication terminal using the communication channel without using the control channel; setting means for setting at least one specific communication channel from a plurality of communication channels; confirmation means for preferentially confirming an idle state of the specific communication channel among all the communication channels; and connection means for connecting a radio line with a destination radio communication terminal in accordance with a result obtained by said confirmation means.
There is also disclosed a communication method for a radio communication system, which comprises a radio base station which accommodates a plurality of radio communication terminals in a radio communication area, and a plurality of radio communication terminals each of which performs a communication using a control channel and a communication channel when the communication is performed via said radio base station, comprising the steps of: setting at least one specific communication channel from a plurality of communication channels when a communication is performed with another radio communication terminal using the communication channel without using the control channel; preferentially confirming an idle state of the specific communication channel among all the communication channels; and connecting a radio line with a destination radio communication terminal in accordance with a result obtained in the confirmation step.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference characters designate the same or similar parts throughout the figures thereof.